Enhancing university students’ academic self-efficacy: the roles of leisure experience, nostalgia, and positive emotions

Although leisure participation has been recognized as an essential life domain that contributes to university students’ lives and education, only a paucity of research has focused on the effects of past leisure experiences on education among university students. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore the role of post-leisure experiences and their impact on education among university students. Specifically, the relationships among memorable leisure experience, nostalgia, positive emotions, and academic self-efficacy were examined. Results of a survey administered to 389 students at a university in Singapore revealed that memorable leisure experience had positive effects on nostalgia and positive emotions towards leisure activities. Furthermore, nostalgia had a positive influence on positive emotions towards favourite leisure activities, which affected university students’ academic self-efficacy. The findings showed that memorable leisure experience played significant roles in influencing university students’ academic self-efficacy. The findings provide empirical support to the existing body of research on nostalgia.